Witch Hunt
by Frootkake Productions
Summary: The chase for two rogue Hunters brings the Winchesters to Boston.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

It was a cool, calm night. The occasional night bird hooted in the woods behind the burning house, and crickets could be heard over the crackling tinder.

The Impala skidded to a halt, kicking up gravel and dirt. Sam Winchester was out of the car as soon as it stopped.

"Oh no," he said. "No!"

He started towards the house, but Dean grabbed him by the shoulder of his jacket and pulled him back.

They could hear the screams inside the house now.

"Dean! What are you doing? We have to help them!"

As he said it, part of the roof caved in, crushing the overhang down onto the front porch.

"We can't go in there!" Dean yelled at his brother. "We're too late!"

Another section of the house caved in, spilling burning wood onto the lawn on the eastern side. The screaming had stopped.

Sam turned his head around to the house. "They were innocent."

"I know."

"This was a mistake."

"I know."

Sam turned back to Dean. "We have to stop them."

"We will, but right now we have to get out of here before someone sees us."

Sam looked back at the house one last time. "I'm sorry, Kandace."

Dean squeezed his shoulder, and then got back in the car. Sam followed, defeated.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"I said I don't remember!" Aidan shouted at Josh.

There was a knock on the door.

Sally vanished and then rematerialized in seconds. "Two guys wearing suits. Cops maybe?"

Josh frowned at Aidan in his blood-stained clothes. "Oh, good!"

The vampire clenched his jaw so as to avoid saying anything he might regret later.

Another knock.

"Just go change," Josh ordered in a hushed voice.

Aidan was already halfway up the stairs.

Sally chewed her lower lip as Josh went to the door. She followed hesitantly, even though the visitors wouldn't be able to see her, anyway. Mostly she was afraid to find out that the cops knew what Aidan seemed to have forgotten about the night before.

The vampire had returned home less than an hour ago, covered in blood that wasn't his own, claiming not to remember where he had been for the last six hours.

"Don't look so worried," Sally said to Josh. "As far as we know, everything's fine. Aidan was home the whole night. Right?"

Josh nodded, took a deep breath, and then opened the door. "Yes?" he asked, trying to hide any remnants of the boiling anger he'd just felt towards his roommate.

Josh was certain that Aidan had slipped again and killed someone, and was lying about his "amnesia". The two had been shouting at each other before the knock on the door had interrupted, but no amount of Aidan's sad eyes and attempts at reasoning would change his mind that his roommate had done something terrible last night.

The shorter of the two men held up an FBI ID badge. The taller one did the same. "We're agents Hewson and Evans."

"Josh Levison," he replied, shaking their hands.

The two agents exchanged inscrutable looks, before the taller one, Evans, pulled a photo out of his inside jacket pocket. "Do you know this woman?"

Josh's eyes widened because he recognized Clara Stevens immediately. She and Aidan had been dating until two weeks ago, when he had broken up with her. He had told her it was because he had lost interest in the relationship, but it was actually because he feared she would be in danger. For the last few weeks, Aidan had been certain someone was following him, and believed it was a vampire hunter.

Josh nodded. "Yeah, I know Clara. Is she OK?"

"Not really. Does Aidan Waite live here?" Hewson asked.

"Yes, I'm right here," Aidan replied. He had come downstairs to listen in on the conversation, and when Josh had said Clara's name, he'd moved swiftly from the staircase. "Is she OK?" he repeated Josh's question.

Josh moved over so that Aidan could fit in the door frame next to him.

Again that inscrutable look passed between the two agents, before Evans said, "Her parents were murdered two days ago. They were exsanguinated. According to neighbours, the two suspects took Ms. Stevens with them."

Aidan tightened his hands into fists. "Who were they?"

"The neighbours called the FBI?" Josh wondered.

"Uh, we think it's part of a larger case involving a gang," Evans replied.

"What did they look like?" Aidan asked gruffly.

"The neighbours didn't get a good look. It was too dark." Hewson noted Aidan's body language, and it raised his suspicions. "When was the last time you saw Clara?"

"Two weeks ago," he replied with a detached tone to his voice. "When I dumped her."

Josh thought that might have been too much information. If these guys thought Aidan was involved in the murders and kidnapping, then the last thing he should admit to was a recent break-up. Especially one that was his fault. He also knew that it was a lie: Aidan had been keeping tabs on her, just in case the vampire hunter went after her.

"Why did you dump her?" Evans inquired.

Aidan fixed the agent with a glare that clearly meant it was none of his business, but he replied, "We grew apart."

"Can you think of anyone that would have wanted to hurt her? Was she involved in any strange activity?" Evans asked. He was playing the sympathetic partner, while Hewson sized up the two men. They would confer back at the car.

"How many of you are on this case?" Aidan asked.

"That's confidential information," Hewson stated.

Evans cleared his throat to interrupt the glaring match between Aidan and Hewson. "We'll contact you if we have any more questions."

"Yeah. Don't leave town."

Josh frowned as he watched the two agents return to their car. "I'm not sure those guys are cops at all."

"I agree," Aidan said, stepping away from the door. "Sally, what do you think?"

But she was not standing behind him. The ghost waved at Josh from the backseat of the agents' Impala.

"Sally's going for a ride," he stated. Josh closed the door, locked it, and turned with his arms folded across his chest.

Aidan was leaning against the back of the couch, an unreadable expression on his face, but Josh interpreted it as somewhere between angry and scared. It was rare to see the vampire afraid, but Clara's disappearance could be proof that a vampire hunter was trying to get to him.

"What are you going to do?" Josh asked much gentler than he had originally intended.

"I don't know. Go to her parents' place. See what I can find. Maybe he left a clue for me to find. Something humans wouldn't see or recognize." Aidan was pacing now. "Then find out where the bodies are. If vampires did this…"

"I'll go with you,"

"No. You shouldn't get involved. He'll come after you, too."

"If you're right about him following you for weeks, then he already knows that I live with you."

Aidan nodded. "Does this mean we're not fighting anymore?"

Josh pointed his finger at Aidan. "Don't bring that up right now."

Sam and Dean Winchester got into the Impala, unaware of their phantom passenger.

"D'you think he was lying?" Sam asked.

Dean fastened his seatbelt, and then turned the ignition. "He was surprised she was missing, that's clear. I think he knows who took her."

"Yeah, me, too,"

"Let's go back to the motel, and you can dig up whatever you can about this guy."

"While you-?"

Dean smirked at his younger brother. "While I hit the town and talk to the locals,"

Sam scowled at him.

"You said he works at the hospital, right? I'll go talk to his co-workers,"

"Sure,"

Dean raised an eyebrow, but Sam was looking out the window and not in the mood to continue speaking.

Sally stayed silent in the backseat.

"Do you hear that?" Sam asked.

Dean nodded. "It's the EMF,"

The younger Winchester fished the EMF reader out of the glove compartment. The red line became solid as he pointed it at the back seat.

Realizing that somehow the device was detecting her presence, Sally went back to the house.

The reading on the EMF device disappeared.

"Huh," Sam grunted.

The two brothers stared at the back seat of the car for a few moments, then glanced at the house, before driving back to their motel.


	3. Chapter 2

The black bag was pulled roughly from Clara's head. She blinked in the sudden light, even though it was quite dim. As her eyes adjusted, she saw that she was in a cellar. The walls were grey brick. She could smell dust and mildew. There were no furnishings, nothing hanging on the walls. Her two captors stood watching her.

The one with dark brown hair that hung to his shoulders, whom the other had called Joren, smirked at her. Clara's skin crawled.

Neither man was a vampire, but they had staged her parents' deaths to appear as if they had been drained of blood. She had been in the trunk of their car, so had not heard much of their conversation, but from their brief encounter at the house, they were both trained fighters with expertise in a variety of weapons.

They had even known the counters to her spells.

The ropes binding her wrists burned her skin. She did not know how these men knew how to protect themselves, but they were clearly well-versed in all the appropriate safeguards. Whatever was in the ropes was also making her drowsy, leaving her unable to focus enough to try and escape. Not that she knew where she was, nor how far from the city.

"Is this the part where you ask me questions, or what?" Clara retorted. She would not show them fear. She was a witch who had been dating a vampire—although he didn't know that she'd figured out his secret. These punks didn't know with whom they were dealing.

"No, princess," Joren replied, kneeling beside her. "This is the part where we leave you alone in the dark to starve and dehydrate."

"Charming,"

Joren scoffed, ruffled her short brown hair, and then slammed her face into the floor. She tasted blood before she lost consciousness.


	4. Chapter 3

Dean got out of the Impala, and gazed up at Suffolk County Hospital. It was a bright, sunny afternoon, but that wouldn't distract him from the mission. He went inside, and nodded politely at the staff. Across the hall, pretty blonde woman was writing notes on a clipboard.

Dean went straight to her. "Excuse me, Miss?"

The nurse turned to face Dean. He held up his badge for her to see. "Agent Hewson. I'm investigating a missing person, and was wondering how well you know Aidan Waite?"

"Aidan? Of course. Um, we work together," she said with a shrug. "Is he in trouble?"

"We have reason to suspect he may have been involved in a woman's disappearance."

"Rebecca's? I thought that was over."

Dean pulled out the picture of Clara Stevens. "Do you recognize this woman?"

The nurse took the picture from him, and scrutinized it for a minute. "Yeah, she came around a couple of times. I think she and Aidan were dating. Is she the one missing?"

"Yes, she is. Who was it you thought I meant?"

"Oh, Rebecca Flynt. She was a nurse here. Rumour had it she and Aidan were seeing each other, and then she went missing last year. They never found her. And there was another woman, Julia. She worked here for a bit as a doctor, but then she died. She was hit by a car. Do you think…but Aidan's a great guy. He'll trade shifts at the last minute, or stay late if the ER is busy…He wouldn't hurt anybody, honest."

Dean nodded. "It's just routine questions, Miss,"

"Liza,"

Dean took a card out of his coat pocket. "If you think of anything else, or if Aidan seems to be acting out of character, Liza, please don't hesitate to call me."

"Of course," Liza agreed, taking the card and putting it in her pants pocket. "Should I…be afraid of him?"

Dean smiled his best reassuring smile and shook his head. "No, Liza. There's no reason for concern."

Dean entered the motel room, fast food take-out bags in hand. He set them down on the kitchen table next to Sam and his laptop.

"So I've been researching Aidan Waite, and I've found something that might be nothing."

"OK," Dean replied quizzically.

"He was born in 1984 to Alice and Arthur Waite right here in Boston. He went to Carlingwood Elementary, then West Boston High School, graduating in 2002. He attended Boston University, graduating in 2006, and now works as a nurse at Suffolk County Hospital."

"You missed the part where 'he's a really great guy, honest'," Dean smirked. "That's how this nurse described him. Liza."

"Yeah, okay. Anyway, so I did a search for Alice and Arthur Waite, and they don't exist."

"His life story is fake," Dean nodded.

"Could be,"

"Well, I found out from Liza that Aidan's female companions have a habit of going missing."

"That's suspicious,"

"She was very adamant that he's a really nice guy, though."

"Yeah, that doesn't mean anything in our line of work,"

"Nope,"

"Do you think he's a hunter?"

Dean shrugged. "Another rogue? Nah. No one would ever mistake one of us for a really great guy."

"Well," Sam replied, "Maybe not _you_,"

"Ha ha hilarious." Dean unwrapped the foil around the burger, and took a bite. "Oh my God," he said through his food. "You have to eat this." He pushed the other burger towards his brother.

"I think tomorrow we should go to the parents' place," Sam said. "Maybe there's something there that the locals missed."

"D'you think this was them? Joren and Pete."

"It fits. They are on a witch crusade."

"They've never taken one prisoner before. This is tied to Waite somehow."

"Maybe he's a witch, too?" Sam suggested.

Dean shrugged. "How can we figure that out?"

Sam chewed his bottom lip for a moment. "We'll have to search his house. Look for witchy things," he said with a shrug. He took a bite of his burger. "This is good!"

"You said 'witchy'."


End file.
